Co-op project idea: Expose the televangelists.

TonyZXT
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Co-op project idea: Expose the televangelists.

I was just watching a Lewis black video on Youtube where he talked about Jimmy Swaggart begging for money from his mom's grave claiming that [it would have been his mom's wish that people send him money, so that he could spread the word of Jebus]  While I thought about the level of slimeball he had to be to do some BS like that, a thought occurred to me.  It's a damn shame that religious people can't be shown all the disgusting behavior these televangelists engage in, so they would be discredited.  Well what's stopping us from showing them?  I think I have a unique aproach,... read on!

I'm aware that allot of this info has been out there for decades, and hasn't changed most xian views.  I'm talking about packaging all this information in one place, then drawing unsuspecting xians to a site where the truth is laid out.  I figure curiosity alone will get enough people to stay long enough to cause doubt.   I think if the credulous and over-trusting xians can be shown that the leadership of their religion are all corrupt, they will start to question things.

I was thinking I'd create a website or blog that exposed the dirty deeds of Robertson, Fallwell, Dollar, Hagee, and others.  This has been done before, but my idea has a couple of key differences.  The site would try to be respectful enough not to alienate the religious visitors too quickly, but rather inform them as to what their so-called leaders have been up to.  This is where the coop part comes in.  People who are inclined to get involved and help out could help in 1 of 2 ways.  1. Mining teh intarwebs(or TV, newspapers etc.)  for stories or evidence of wrongdoing or general douchbaggery by the televangelists.  and #2.  Posting stickers around churhes everywhere.   This is the most important difference IMHO, because there needs to be some grassroots way of driving believers to the site.  I think it would also be a fun thing to do in conservative areas or in the biblebelt, as a way of fighting back against all the ignorance around.  I can create a downloadeable stencil for stickers to be made for next to nothing.  After the website is able to make enough advertising money to support it's server fees etc, money could be invested into buying stickers and selling them at cost to people willing to go out and place them.

I'm trying to brainstorm a non-offensive or at least minimally offensive site name that might inspire a little cuiosity.  Please post up any ideas that come to mind. 

Also I'd like to gauge interest in the people on the forum to be contributors.  Whether you run accross a single article to submit, or if you have some spare time to hunt down some dirt, or you want to put up stickers next to those nasty churches.  Everyone let me know what you think, even if you think it's a dumb idea.

"They always say the same thing; 'But evolution is only a theory!!' Which is true, I guess, and it's good they say that I think, it gives you hope that they feel the same about the theory of Gravity and they might just float the f**k away."


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Perhaps "The Real

Perhaps "The Real Christianity" or "The Real Church"


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I would be happy to help do

I would be happy to help do some mining.

 

I recently began collecting searching for, watching and collecting links to various televangelist videos with the idea of working up my own video comprised partially of pieces from many of them. It takes a bit of time to search various terms and watch and choose which might be useful etc.

I guess I've got 50 to 70 or so saved at the moment.

Actually I was fairly shocked during my searches so far.

I already knew about Tilton, Swaggart, Copeland, Oral Roberts, Hinn etc. but there are quite a few others. Maybe you wouldn't be interested in some of them though. I wasn't looking strictly at televangelists but at crazy preachers, nutty pastors and insane religious crackpots in general.

 

My father recently sent me a link to a page that turned out to be Dr. James Manning's site. I knew nothing about this guy but was kinda stunned. he rants about how Obama is an 'emissary of the devil' and out to 'steal the honor and blah-blah' of the country. He's a nut.

I haven't asked my dad why he sent this. My guess is that in his mind he thinks there is a chance I could conclude:

Crazy Black preacher + another crazy black preacher + Obama is black = don't vote for Obama.

Who knows?

Not sure if he qualifies as 'televangelist' but a nutcase, nonetheless:

http://www.atlah.org/broadcast/ndnr07-28-08.html

See how long you can stand this guy!


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Bump - Maybe I can add some

Bump - Maybe I can add some thing of value later. This is hugely important. I literally despise these televangelist charlatan lying rich pandering frauds. The FCC is an enemy allowing this selling of snake oil, holy water, holy bread, and hocus pocus promises of sowing your seed to gain financial rewards. ETC.

Bull Shit Council, of the Bi Bull frauds and sheep loons,

"Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelical_Council_for_Financial_Accountability

List of Christian evangelist scandals

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_evangelist_scandals

Robert Tilton

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Tilton

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0706695.htm

"Tax the fuck out of the churches."  Frank Zappa.

Thanks for posting, I am always pissed about this fixable problem. I hate the FCC and THEIR TV mostly sucks.

FCC approved ????????? 

Benny Hinn:

Let the Bodies Hit the Floor  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lvU-DislkI

Pat Condell mentioned a group of lawyers that want to sue the Pope, churches, and I think the FCC as well  ..... It needs doing and support  .... 

 

 


TonyZXT
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Thanks for the replies

Thanks for the replies so-far guys.  Glad to see some interest.  I've been reading through some of the links you guys posted.

I should clarify that Televangelists would be the main focus initially, just because of the publics familiarity with them.  The main thrust though is to show how most of the major players in the religious right, and the xian leadership in this country have discredited themselves by being hypocrites, crooks, and liars.

I am almost shocked how many people here in Virginia Beach think that Pat Robertson is some kind of a hero.  I've been accused of making shit up , exagerating, or just repeating malicious lies more than once when recounting all the bat-shit crazy and crooked stuff he does.  Just makes me realize that people need to see the xian leadership for what they are.

I'll do some more reading tomorrow, but in the mean-time I need sleep, I'm dead tired and probably not making much sense right now. 

Anyone have suggestions for the format of the site?

Will post more tomorrow.

 

 

 

"They always say the same thing; 'But evolution is only a theory!!' Which is true, I guess, and it's good they say that I think, it gives you hope that they feel the same about the theory of Gravity and they might just float the f**k away."


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Benny Hinn is the most

Benny Hinn is the most successful con in the world. If anyone should be at the top of the list of people who need to be exposed it would be him.

Silvia Brown although not a preacher is still a con and she too needs to be exposed.

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Can you help me define

Can you help me define exactly what you mean by 'televangelist' ?

I looked up every variation of evangelical, evangelist etc. and am not certain where you are drawing the line.

 

A 'Protestant preacher of the Christian gospel' seems to be the basic definition.

Are you focusing only on the so-called 'prosperity' preachers?

The 'give me some of your money and god will pay you back tenfold' guys?


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Don't stop at mere sex

Don't stop at mere sex scandals and money schemes; remember to include their inflammatory rhetoric.  That's a scandal all by itself.  (Remember the Pat Robertson/Jerry Falwell exchange a couple of days after Sept. 11th?  And they say that liberals are the ones who "blame America first!&quotEye-wink

 

Conor


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nikimoto wrote:Can you help

nikimoto wrote:

Can you help me define exactly what you mean by 'televangelist' ?

I looked up every variation of evangelical, evangelist etc. and am not certain where you are drawing the line.

 

A 'Protestant preacher of the Christian gospel' seems to be the basic definition.

Are you focusing only on the so-called 'prosperity' preachers?

The 'give me some of your money and god will pay you back tenfold' guys?

 

Pretty much all of those.  Like I said, I think starting off with the most visible people makes the most sense.  For the most part the most visible are the ones begging for your cash all over TV.  There are plenty of crooked preachers not on TV too though.  Christian charties that are too loose with their money are another good target.  There could be a catagory for crooked ID proponents like our favorite a-hole Kent.  I would want to start with the most crooked/visible and start working down the list.  I think it's important to expose non-famous crooks too, so that people can see that the corruption goes far beyond the TV guys.

In the end we want people to arrive at some important questions on their own, things like: "If Christian leadership is so crooked accross the board, can I trust that they're telling me the truth about God or anything else?" or  "If the famous, and visible churches are all crooked, what's to say that most of the smaller churches aren't?"

"They always say the same thing; 'But evolution is only a theory!!' Which is true, I guess, and it's good they say that I think, it gives you hope that they feel the same about the theory of Gravity and they might just float the f**k away."


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Conor Wilson wrote:Don't

Conor Wilson wrote:

Don't stop at mere sex scandals and money schemes; remember to include their inflammatory rhetoric.  That's a scandal all by itself.  (Remember the Pat Robertson/Jerry Falwell exchange a couple of days after Sept. 11th?  And they say that liberals are the ones who "blame America first!&quotEye-wink

 

Conor

 

Good point.  It should be pretty easy to show that the religious right that claims to have a monopoly on morality, are pretty much devoid of morality.   The things they say should clearly demonstrate that.

"They always say the same thing; 'But evolution is only a theory!!' Which is true, I guess, and it's good they say that I think, it gives you hope that they feel the same about the theory of Gravity and they might just float the f**k away."


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Brian37 wrote:Benny Hinn is

Brian37 wrote:

Benny Hinn is the most successful con in the world. If anyone should be at the top of the list of people who need to be exposed it would be him.

Silvia Brown although not a preacher is still a con and she too needs to be exposed.

I agree, Hinn would definitely be in the top 3 along with Pat Robertson, and John Hagee.  I'm not sure what all Hagee has done, but he is the ultimate fear monger!  He would launch the nukes to start WW3 himself, if he could!  Hey, at least Falwell is dead, but I would still love to uncover some serious corruption at that pseudo-college of his.

 

"They always say the same thing; 'But evolution is only a theory!!' Which is true, I guess, and it's good they say that I think, it gives you hope that they feel the same about the theory of Gravity and they might just float the f**k away."


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 You are describing

 

You are describing Evolution VS Revolution in religion. Its a concept that better to make Christians liberal in a longer period of time before enlighten them with atheism. A Revolution is a sudden change and a switch from Christian to atheist.   My suggestion is never challenge their god or Jesus simply write something in the stile "would Jesus do something like this **Insert bible verse if needed**" or "Is this the doing of a good Christian" and take them nice.

 

Warning I’m not a native English speaker.

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Ok, a little update.  I've

Ok, a little update.  I've gone to all the liks you guys provided, and looked at well over 50 other articles, I bookmarked a bunch of good stuff.  One thing I noticed though is that it's easy to find stuff on the big players, and you have to search a little more to find stuff on lesser known pastors/churches.  Lesser known players  will be a very important aspect of this, and will warrant it's own section.  I can see people compartmentalizing all of these famous rich preachers into another catagory from their small-time preacher, so it's very important to show those guys are involved in scandal too.  

Aslo, I would like to avoid picking soleley on the xians, so I need to do some research into rabbis, and muslim leaders too.  If anyone has info on these guys please share.  I already have a little on Farakan, but that's not nearly enough.

I've been giving some thought to the layout of the site, and have an initial Idea of how things will be laid out.  In a nutshell, it will be broken down by religion, then grouped by size, then induvidual.  I am fairly green on html, having never created a very complicated web page, so this might be a bit of an adventure.  Eventually every story will have tags, so if you want to look up preechers who've commited  child molestation, or impropper use of funds, you'll be able to click on that tag.  I will probably have a seperate catagory altogether for leaders based on salary or overall wealth.

I still haven't come up with any name ideas that I like.

.Obviously things are still in the concept stage for now, and I would greatly apreciate any ideas or input,

Anyways, I have a ton to get done tonight so I'll leave it at that for now, and I hope to see some of everyone's thoughts.

 

"They always say the same thing; 'But evolution is only a theory!!' Which is true, I guess, and it's good they say that I think, it gives you hope that they feel the same about the theory of Gravity and they might just float the f**k away."